Executive director, the Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS) in Lagos, and a constitutional lawyer, Barrister Xeenarh Mohammed, has said that Nigeria’s constitution outlawed homosexualism and lesbianism.
Barrister Mohammed who stated this in Ibadan added that henceforth, anyone caught involved in homosexual or lesbianism risks 14 years jail term.
The constitutional lawyer stated that 47 men accused of homosexuality are currently standing trial in a Nigerian court, adding that the men, who said they are innocent of the charges,appeared in court Thursday.
He said the 47 accused persons are among a group of 57 men arrested at a birthday party when police invaded the hotel and rounded up guests.
“The Nigeria Police Force have slammed the men with charges of “public show of same sex amorous relationship with each other in hidden places and claimed the event was a gay initiation party.”
Mohammed said that the police also paraded the accused on television which had made them subjects of homophobic attacks after they were released last year.
“Many of them were disowned by their families after they saw them on TV. A dry cleaner among them lost clients that feared he could introduce their kids to homosexual acts,” he said.
The constitutional lawyer stressed further that, in recent past, a budding musical artist, Shulammite Nkiru Emeghara, alleged of lesbian was hounded out of the country by the Police with the connivance of her family members for being a lesbian.”
